Wake Up Sammy!!!

Brooklyn's favorite thing to do EVERY day is to wake Brynlee up. If I get Bryn out of her crib before Brooklyn gets to say hi she flips out! So naturally when we were watching Samantha, Brooklyn got to go say hi when she woke up. She sat and played with her for about 10 minutes. It was really cute.

ABC Book - M

Mickey Mouse:

 Monkey:

Make-shift Shed

We have SO many outside toys that get in the way in the garage. So I decided to find a place outside for them to free up some space. My mom and I came up with a great idea, using plywood that we already had. Here are a few of the toys:

Now they are packed away and safe from the snow:

Of course this winter hasn't really been winter. I'm going to have to empty all the toys out since the kids are wanting to ride their bikes in this odd warm-ish weather we've been having.

Arctic Circle

While Josh was at his quarterly sales meetings, we had our quarterly run to Arctic Circle. The kids LOVE the playplace at the one in Riverton, and I LOVE it because Brynlee can play on it without getting lost or scared. Here are the kids with their courtesy kids cones:

ABC Book - K

Karaoke Machine:

 Kangaroo:

More of The Box

With the kids at preschool, Brynlee got the box all to herself. She was loving it:

Princess Party

Brooklyn got invited to Claire's princess party. She was SO excited, eventhough she's not that into princesses. I thought for sure she would want to wear her Tinkerbell dress, but she insisted on wearing Cinderella. All morning she kept asking, "What's the blue princess's name again?" That's how into princesses she is :) I was ecstatic that we gave her a princess dress up trunk for Christmas so she had a costume to wear. She had a lot of fun at Claire's house and keeps talking about it. And FINALLY she is showing some interest into princesses and is always wearing her costumes around the house. Yeah!

ABC Book - I...I mean L

So I sent the kids to school with their "i" items. When they got home I noticed that instead of "icepack," Brayden's teacher had written down "lunchbag" on his item slip of paper. I asked Brayden many times if he told his teacher there was an icepack inside the bag he took to carry it in. He said yes over and over again. I was very confused, until the NEXT week when I finally realized that it wasn't "i" it was supposed to be "l." Woops. Score another mother of the year point under my name! So here are the "i" items that were turned into "l" items:

Icepack turned into lunch bag, which we haven't taken pictures of yet:

 Brooklyn took her iceskating Pinkalicious book. Not quite sure how to turn this into "L" yet:

Proud Daddy Moment

You gotta love the effort dads put into raising children. Josh does a fantastic job and is a great father. I have to document, however, the moments that reiterate the fact that there is a reason he goes to work everyday and I stay home with the kids. I laid out clothes for Brynlee to be changed into before her nap while I went to choir practice. I couldn't help but laugh when she woke up and this is what I found. He did manage to dress her, but apparently we now put the tags in the front. Love it!

 And of course if I start taking pictures of Brynlee, Brooklyn wants a turn. Here she is cuddling with dad after her nap:

Mckinsley's Birthday Party

My cute little niece turned one and they had a cute lace themed birthday party for. She asked me to do the invitations and this is what I came up with:

 The kids had a lot of fun playing in their basement that was just finished.

 Cute Brynlee wanted to play with all the presents:

 Mckinsley was really hesitant to touch the cake at first, but she quickly got the hang of it. Happy Birthday Mckinsley!

The Box

We seem to always have boxes lying around. The kids always go nuts when I order stuff online and the packages come. They build forts, houses, airplanes, etc. Such cheap entertainment! I love it!

Martin Luther King Weekend

We decided to head up to the cabin for the weekend. It was the first time we've been up there since Josh's grandfather passed away. It was really hard for him to keep his emotions under control as he had a lot of memories with his grandpa up there. We headed up Friday early afternoon. Josh's dad went up there with us to help get all our stuff and the kids up to the cabin. It was the first time we've ever gone up there by ourselves...kinda weird but still fun. As soon as we got there we put the girls down for their naps and relaxed for a bit. That evening we played games with the kids, watched movies, and ate dinner. Josh and I stayed up watching Prison Break then headed to bed.

Saturday morning we enjoyed the time we didn't have to be doing anything. The kids enjoyed more shows, games, and coloring:

 Michael came up in the early afternoon so we headed outside for some snow fun! We've never been up to the cabin with such little snow. The kids LOVED going down the hills on the sleds:

 Brynlee absolutely LOVED being outside, eventhough she couldn't move around much.

 We hooked the sled up to the 4 wheeler and took the kids for a ride.

 Michael and Brayden going down on a sled. We were surprised how much more daring Brayden was this year. That kid had NO fear and went down the hill by himself, usually crashing at the end.

 Marcello, Rueben, and Josh's siblings Andrew and Rachael joined us in the evening. It was fun to teach our amigos some fun games and hang out with them. We stayed up playing games and watching movies. Sunday we took it pretty easy. We enjoyed the morning and played more games with the amigos. We all went out for a little bit to do more sledding and Andrew took the amigos on the snowmobiles. Here's our little marshmallow:

 Josh, Brynlee, and Rueben climbing back up the hill.

 Again, Brynlee LOVED being outside. She would just sit and watch everyone, then point to the sled when she wanted to go down. I love my little girls!

Steve came up Sunday evening after the amigos left. We played more games, then Michael, Andrew, and Rachael headed home. Steve, Josh, and I stayed up playing Ticket to Ride a few more times then headed to bed. Monday morning we took our time cleaning and packing up. We headed home @ 2. It was a fantastic trip!

One More Cabin Pic

I missed this picture from when we got to the cabin. Brynlee couldn't move much, but the cabin was so cold we didn't want to take her snow clothes off yet. So until the cabin heated up a bit, she chilled on the couch and loved it.

Kay's Birthday

We celebrated Kay's birthday at Josh's grandma's house. We have a tradition for the kids to give their grandma's roses on their birthdays and they were very excited to do so. 

 We had Asian Star for dinner then relaxed and visited all evening.

 All the grandkids:

Saying goodbye to Grammy:

ABC Book - J

Brayden was excited for his 7 J's - Jazz pants, Jazz Jacket, Jazz Jersey, Jordan shoes, & Jazz Bear.

 Jazz Bear Bobblehead:

3D

It took me a while to fully get why 3D tv's are pretty cool. I've never really seen the point. However, we got the Lion King in 3D for Christmas and Josh made me sit down with the glasses and watch the opening song. It was a lot cooler than I expected. I still think it's odd though to see this:

Scott's Cabin

 Sunday morning we woke up and headed to church at 11. Yeah for 11:00 church! The kids loved their new primary teachers. I can't believe Brooklyn is now a Sunbeam! After church we headed up to Nick and Kesha's cabin. There wasn't much snow, but it was still fun. We hung out and played games all evening. Their oven/stove wasn't working so it was interesting using the microwave and George Foreman grill to make quesadillas, ck tacos, and french toast. Dinner was way good, then I put the girls to sleep. Here are the boys hanging out:

 We played the marble game a few times as Josh wasn't feeling very well. We settled down knowing there was a good chance he would be throwing up in the middle of the night. I was so worried about him as well as worried about the kids falling down the stairs trying to find the bathroom that I didn't sleep well. Josh finally threw up @ 4:30 and it was determined he caught the stomach bug that's going around. Not a fun place to get that. No running water, only one bathroom, etc. He had a rough night/morning. Us, however, had a fun time playing in the snow and hanging out some more. We all went outside to let Josh rest while the baby was asleep. Then Nick and Kesha were kind enough to keep playing with the kids while I was with Brynlee after she woke up. Here are a few of the fun things we did outside:

This is Brayden making a river:

After playing in the snow I quickly packed everything up so we could head home. We had yummy sandwiches for lunch then headed out. Eventhough it was a quick trip and Josh was sick, we still had a lot of fun! (Ironically, their cabin is only @ 5 minutes from our cabin. What are the odds?!)